Sep 30 DY Model Shoot

My wife is a big fan of DavidYurman jewelry.I’m a big fan of the David
Yurman advertisement photography.I
think my interest is cheaper!Anyway, I
decided to try a model shoot with a David Yurman style theme.

The theme is very straight
forward.The model photography tends to
be black & white, minimalist images.Obviously, showing jewelry and either implied nude or basic
clothes.The images are very clean and
tend to be full or partial head shots.Sometimes waist up.The goal is a
classy image which draws your eye to the jewelry.

This shoot was fairly easy to set
up.I contacted MUA, Sasha Star, who I
regularly use and Amanda Veldkamp who I’ve photographed previously.I know her style and her look was perfect for
what I had in my mind’s eye.I contacted
both and arranged a date.I asked Amanda
what to bring in terms of clothing and to bring some chunky jewelry.I also sent Sasha a tear sheet with looks /
makeup I was trying to achieve.We were
set.Upon arrival Sasha spent about
30-45 minutes on Amanda’s makeup while I did final lighting adjustment.

Lighting and backgrounds at M10
Studio was set up the day before the shoot.To get the effect I wanted I needed to photograph Amanda against both a
black and a white background using similar lighting.The background consisted of Savage seamlesswhite paper on a Savage background stand, and another background using Savage
black seamless paper on another background stand.Lighting was a clamshell setup using an Elinchrom27” Softlite Reflector beauty dish as the top half of the clamshell and as the
key light.A ProMaster SystemPro 42”ReflectaDisc 5 on a small Manfrotto lightstand was the bottom of the clamshell for
fill light.I used the silver side of the
reflector.Studio lighting in the beauty
dish a single Elinchrom D-Lite 4.I also
had a second Elinchrom D-Lite 4 in an Elinchrom softbox standing by for
additional fill light if needed.

We started off against the white background and I set my Nikon D300s in
manual using ISO 200, f/8 and speed at 1/160.For the entire shoot I used my AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens.I think I’ve said before, but this lens is
amazing.I varied aperture during the
shoot to get the proper depth of feel and lighting effect.I also moved Amanda closer and farther from
the beauty dish to get the proper lighting.We also did several shots without the fill reflector.

After doing about 20-30 minutes
against the white background I moved everything over to the black background
and we did the same lighting.During the
shoot Amanda changed her top a couple of times and changed up her jewelry.The first set I simply had her pull the
straps of her tee off her shoulder to give the implied look.This was the look that we really liked.

After about an hour we were done. Oh yes, we also did a few minutes against a concrete wall playing with shadows, but that wasn't really part of the shoot.

Adjusted in Lightroom 4 before converting to B&W in Photoshop CS6

Same image after converted to B&W in Photoshop CS6 for the desired effect

Post processing was equally
important for this shoot because of the desired Black & White effect I
wanted.Therefore, the first thing I did
(which is part of my normal workflow) was to import my images into my main
computer, add tags / keywords and then import them into Adobe Lightroom 4.I used LR4 to do most of my adjustments,
mainly curves adjustments and Clarity.Amanda has really nice skin so not much work was needed on localized
skin work.I then imported the desired
images into Adobe Photoshop CS6 and finalized the processing.In each shot I added just a hint of surface
blur to soften Amanda’s skin and added a black and white layer.I adjusted the black & white layer to
taste.And with that I got the desired
results.I was really happy with the
shoot, the images and as always happy to work with Sasha and Amanda.

After action report:

·I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again –
watch the hair. Amanda’s hair was blond and that worked well against the white
background.However when I got it
against the black backdrop I missed a bunch of the flyaways.Guess what I did spent time on in post??

·Use a lightmeter.I have since purchased a Sekonic lightmeter,
but during this shoot I spent probably 5-10 minutes at start getting the
lighting just right for the effect I wanted.Since then I’ve done a shoot with my Sekonic and it really helped.

·I should have brought jewelry specific to what I
wanted to capture.Amanda brought a few
pieces that worked great, but I wanted a few pieces that were chunkier.OK, here’s the problem, I’m a guy so I don’t have
jewelry just hanging around.Guess I’ll
just have to work with what my model brings.

·Bring an assistant.It would have been better to have someone
hold the reflector or adjust the lights as needed.OK, OK I know I can do this myself, but let’s
face it, it would make the shoot easier.